strong fortified town of Sweden; situated in the territory of Bleckingen and province of South Gothland. It was built in 1614 by Christian IV. king of Denmark, when this province belonged to the Danes; and finally ceded to the Swedes by the peace of Roskilde in 1638. The town is small but neatly built, and is esteemed the strongest fortress in Sweden. The houses are all of brick, and mostly stuccoed white. It stands in a marshy plain, close to the river Helgeia, which flows into the Baltic at Ahus, about the distance of 20 miles, and is navigable only for small craft of seven tons burden. English vessels annually resort to this port for alum, pitch, and tar. The inhabitants have manufactures of cloth and silken stuffs, and carry on a small degree of commerce. E. Long. 14° 40'. N. Lat. 56° 10'.

Christina, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden, was born in 1626; and succeeded to the crown in 1633, when only seven years of age. This princess discovered, even in her infancy, what she afterwards expressed in her memoirs, an invincible antipathy for the employments and conversation of women; and she had the natural awkwardness of a man with respect to all the little works which generally fall to their share. She was, on the contrary, fond of violent exercises, and such amusements as consist in feats of strength and activity. She had also both ability and taste for abstracted speculations; and amused herself Christina with language and the sciences, particularly that of legislation and government. She derived her knowledge of ancient history from its source; and Polybius and Thucydides were her favourite authors. As she was the sovereign of a powerful kingdom, it is not strange that almost all the princes in Europe aspired to her bed. Among others, were the prince of Denmark, the elector Palatine, the elector of Brandenburg, the king of Spain, the king of the Romans, Don John of Austria, Sigismund of Rockocci, count and general of Cassovia; Stanislaus king of Poland; John Cassimir his brother; and Charles Gustavus duke of Deux Ponts, of the Bavarian Palatinate family, son of her father the great Gustavus's sister, and consequently her first cousin. To this nobleman, as well as to all his competitors, she constantly refused her hand; but she caused him to be appointed her successor by the states. Political interests, differences of religion, and contrariety of manners, furnished Christina with pretences for rejecting all her suitors; but her true motives were the love of independence, and a strong aversion she had conceived, even in her infancy, from the marriage yoke. "Do not force me to marry (said she to the states); for if I should have a son, it is not more probable that he should be an Augustus than a Nero."

An accident happened in the beginning of her reign, which gave her a remarkable opportunity of displaying the strength and equanimity of her mind. As she was at the chapel of the castle of Stockholm, assisting at divine service with the principal lords of her court, a poor wretch, who was disordered in his mind, came to the place with a design to assassinate her. This man, who was preceptor of the college, and in the full vigour of his age, chose, for the execution of his design, the moment in which the assembly was performing what in the Swedish church is called an act of recollection; a silent and separate act of devotion, performed by each individual kneeling and hiding the face with the hand. Taking this opportunity, he rushed through the crowd, and mounted a balustrade within which the queen was upon her knees. The Baron Braki, chief justice of Sweden, was alarmed, and cried out; and the guards crossed their partisans, to prevent his coming further; but he struck them furiously on one side; leaped over the barrier; and, being then close to the queen, made a blow at her with a knife which he had concealed without a sheath in his sleeve. The queen avoided the blow, and pushed the captain of her guards, who instantly threw himself upon the assassin, and seized him by the hair. All this happened in less than a moment of time. The man was known to be mad, and therefore nobody supposed he had any accomplices: they therefore contented themselves with locking him up; and the queen returned to her devotion without the least emotion that could be perceived by the people, who were much more frightened than herself.

One of the great affairs that employed Christina while she was upon the throne, was the peace of Westphalia, in which many clashing interests were to be reconciled, and many claims to be ascertained. It was concluded in the month of October 1648. The success of the Swedish arms rendered Christina the arbitrress. Christina bitress of this treaty; at least as to the affairs of Sweden, to which this peace confirmed the possession of many important countries. No public event of importance took place during the rest of Christina's reign; for there were neither wars abroad, nor troubles at home. This quiet might be the effect of chance; but it might also be the effect of a good administration, and the great reputation of the queen; and the love her people had for her ought to lead us to this determination. Her reign was that of learning and genius. She drew about her, wherever she was, all the distinguished characters of her time: Grotius, Paschal, Bochart, Descartes, Gassendi, Saumaise, Naude, Vossius, Heinsius, Meibom, Scudery, Menage, Lucas, Holstentius, Lambecius, Bayle, Madame Dacier, Filicaia, and many others. The arts never fail to immortalize the prince who protects them; and almost all these illustrious persons have celebrated Christina, either in poems, letters, or literary productions of some other kind, the greater part of which are now forgotten. They form, however, a general cry of praise, and a mass of testimonials which may be considered as a solid basis of reputation. Christina, however, may be justly reproached with want of taste, in not properly assigning the rank of all these persons, whose merits, though acknowledged, were yet unequal; particularly for not having been sufficiently sensible of the superiority of Descartes, whom she disgusted, and at last wholly neglected. The rapid fortune which the adventurer Michon, known by the name of Bourdelot, acquired by her countenance and liberality, was also a great scandal to literature. He had no pretensions to learning; and though sprightly was yet indecent. He was brought to court by the learned Saumaise; and, for a time, drove literary merit out of it, making learning the object of his ridicule, and exacting from Christina an exorbitant tribute to the weakness and inconstancy of her sex; for even Christina, with respect to this man, showed herself to be weak and inconstant. At last she was compelled, by the public indignation, to banish this unworthy minion; and he was no sooner gone than her regard for him was at an end. She was ashamed of the favour she had shown him; and, in a short time, thought of him with hatred or contempt. This Bourdelot, during his ascendancy over the queen, had supplanted Count Magnus de la Gardie, son of the constable of Sweden, who was a relation, a favourite, and perhaps the lover of Christina. M. de Motville, who had seen him ambassador in France, says, in his memoirs, that he spoke of his queen in terms so passionate and respectful, that every one concluded his attachment to her to be more ardent and tender than a mere sense of duty can produce. This nobleman fell into disgrace because he showed an inclination to govern; while M. Bourdelot seemed to aim at nothing more than to amuse; and concealed, under the unsuspected character of a droll, the real ascendancy which he exercised over the queen's mind.

About this time, an accident happened to Christina which brought her into still greater danger than that which has been related already. Having given orders for some ships of war to be built at the port of Stockholm, she went to see them when they were finished; and as she was going on board of them, cross a narrow plank, with Admiral Fleming, his foot slipping, he fell, and drew the queen with him into the sea, which in that place was near 90 feet deep. Anthony Steinberg, the queen's first equerry, instantly threw himself into the water, laid hold of her robe, and, with such assistance as was given him, got the queen ashore; during this accident, her recollection was such, that the moment her lips were above water, she cried out, "Take care of the admiral." When she was got out of the water, she discovered no emotion either by her gesture or countenance; and she dined the same day in public, where she gave a humorous account of her adventure.

But though at first she was fond of the power and splendour of royalty, yet she began at length to feel that it embarrassed her; and the same love of independence and liberty which had determined her against marriage, at last made her weary of the crown. As, after her first disgust, it grew more and more irksome to her, she resolved to abdicate; and, in 1652, communicated her resolution to the senate. The senate zealously remonstrated against it; and was joined by the people; and even by Charles Gustavus himself, who was to succeed her: she yielded to their importunities, and continued to sacrifice her own pleasure to the will of the public till the year 1654; and then she carried her design into execution. It appears by one of her letters to M. Canut, in whom she put great confidence, that she had meditated this project for more than eight years; and that she had communicated it to him five years before it took place.

The ceremony of her abdication was a mournful solemnity, a mixture of pomp and sadness, in which scarce any eyes but her own were dry. She continued firm and composed through the whole; and, as soon as it was over, prepared to remove into a country more favourable to science than Sweden was. Concerning the merit of this action, the world has always been divided in opinion; it has been condemned alike both by the ignorant and the learned, the trifler and the sage. It was admired, however, by the great Conde: "How great was the magnanimity of this princess (said he), who could so easily give up that for which the rest of mankind are continually destroying each other, and which so many throughout their whole lives pursue without attaining?" It appears, by the works of St Evremond, that the abdication of Christina was at that time the universal topic of speculation and debate in France. Christina, besides abdicating her crown, abjured her religion; but this act was universally approved by one party and censured by another; the Papists triumphed, and the Protestants were offended. No prince, after a long imprisonment, ever showed so much joy upon being restored to his kingdom, as Christina did in quitting hers. When she came to a little brook, which separates Sweden from Denmark, she got out of her carriage; and leaping on the other side, cried out in a transport of joy, "At last I am free, and out of Sweden, whither, I hope, I shall never return." She dismissed her women, and laid by the habit of her sex: "I would become a man (said she); yet I do not love men because they are men, but because they are not women." She made her abjuration at Brussels; where she saw the great Conde, who, after Christina, his defection, made that city his asylum. "Cousin," (said she), who would have thought, ten years ago, that we should have met at this distance from our countries?"

The inconstancy of Christina's temper appeared in her going continually from place to place: from Brussels she went to Rome; from Rome to France, and from France she returned to Rome again; after this she went to Sweden, where she was not very well received; from Sweden she went to Hamburgh, where she continued a year, and then went again to Rome; from Rome she returned to Hamburgh; and again to Sweden, where she was still worse received than before; upon which she went back to Hamburgh, and from Hamburgh again to Rome. She intended another journey to Sweden; but it did not take place, any more than an expedition to England, where Cromwell did not seem well disposed to receive her; and after many wanderings, and many purposes of wandering still more, she at last died at Rome in 1689.

It must be acknowledged, that her journeys to Sweden had a motive of necessity; for her appointments were very ill paid, though the states often confirmed them after her abdication: but to other places she was led merely by a roving disposition; and, what is more to her discredit, she always disturbed the quiet of every place she came into, by exacting greater deference to her rank as queen than she had a right to expect, by her total non-conformity to the customs of the place, and by continually exciting and fomenting intrigues of state. She was indeed always too busy, even when she was upon the throne; for there was no event in Europe in which she was not ambitious of acting a principal part. During the troubles in France by the faction called the Fronde, she wrote with great eagerness to all the interested parties, officiously offering her mediation to reconcile their interests, and calm their passions, the secret springs of which it was impossible she should know. This was first thought a dangerous, and afterwards a ridiculous behaviour. During her residence in France she gave universal disgust, not only by violating all the customs of the country, but by practicing others directly opposite. She treated the ladies of the court with the greatest rudeness and contempt: when they came to embrace her, she being in man's habit, cried out, "What a strange eagerness have these women to kiss me! is it because I look like a man?"

But though she ridiculed the manners of the French court, she was very solicitous to enter into its intrigues. Louis XIV. then very young, was enamoured of Demoiselle de Mancini, niece to Cardinal Mazarine; Christina flattered their passion, and offered her service. "I would fain be your confidant (said she); if you love, you must marry."

The murder of Monaldechi is, to this hour, an inscrutable mystery. It is, however, of a piece with the expressions constantly used by Christina in her letters, with respect to those with whom she was offended; for she scarce ever signified her displeasure without threatening the life of the offender. "If you fail in your duty, (said she to her secretary, whom she sent to Stockholm after her abdication), not all the power of the king of Sweden shall save your life, though you should take shelter in his arms." A musician having quitted her service for that of the duke of Savoy, she was so transported with rage as to disgrace herself by these words, in a letter written with her own hand: "He lives only for me: and if he does not sing for me, he shall not sing long for any body."

Bayle was also threatened for having said that the letter which Christina wrote, upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, was "a remain of Protestantism;" but he made his peace by apologies and submission. See the article BAYLE.

Upon the whole, she appears to have been an uncommon mixture of faults and great qualities; which, however it might excite fear and respect, was by no means amiable. She had wit, taste, parts, and learning: she was indefatigable upon the throne; great in private life; firm in misfortunes; impatient of contradiction; and, except in her love letters, inconsistent in her inclinations. The most remarkable instance of this fickleness is, That after she had abdicated the crown of Sweden, she intrigued for that of Poland. She was, in every action and pursuit, violent and ardent in the highest degree; impetuous in her desires, dreadful in her resentment, and fickle in her conduct.

She says of herself, that, "she was mistrustful, ambitious, passionate, haughty, impatient, contemptuous, satirical, incredulous, undevout, of an ardent and violent temper, and extremely amorous;" a disposition, however, to which, if she may be believed, her pride and her virtue were always superior. In general, her failings were those of her sex, and her virtues the virtues of ours.

Santa CHRISTINA, one of the Marquesas Islands.